Lumity's Beating Heart
by 8unicorns
Summary: This is an unapologetic Lumity fic. It's the boiling isles' love holiday and how does the local school celebrate? a magic combat tournament of course! romantic Lumity Hijinks ensue and the whole thing is (supposed to be) just fun. rated teen for slight violence and planned romantic activity.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: howdy ya'll long time no see. I'm going to try and update stories weekly for the foreseeable future and that includes past stories. i have ideas for three more owl house fics and a rwby fic i'm working on. this is just a little bit of fluff to start the ball rolling. remember to please review as it is a huge motivating factor for writing and genuinely give some feedback! enjoy!**

Luz woke up on August the Fourteenth ready for another great day on the magical boiling isles. In her past life she might've quoted some Latin or some piece of niche foreign media to express how she felt to the outside world. But today she got up, smiled and went downstairs simply exuding pleasantness. King was waiting for her arrival as happy to see her as he'd been every day since she arrived. She prepared breakfast for her mentor Eda, and King. Hooty the house owl informed the house that it was 9:00 am, Luz hoped that Eda would get up so that she could film her doing magic and learn even more spells. She knew from experience however, that there was no getting Eda to do anything on any type of schedule. Eda eventually found her way down the stairs around 10:00.

Luz, serving her breakfast asked "how is your day going "

. Eda, taking a pause her face slowly whitened and she replied.

"Day….. now wait a minute!" her eyes opened wide she sped through the kitchen and turned to a calendar.

Flipping through it she muttered to herself "Oh no no no this isn't good"

After a second's thought she shouted frenziedly "Luz! We need to go somewhere fast!"

The ground began to tremble and Luz who was now scared and excited for adventure nervously responded "Where?"

Eda immediately, while prepping her staff for take off replied "somewhere people who know me, won't find me!"

Luz scooped up king and her magical supplies, which included a pen paper and a notepad of prewritten spells stuffed them all into a recently acquired fanny pack and hopped on Eda's Staff.

Gently guiding the staff toward her destination she says " i have an idea"

Eda, relieved, says "I'm glad i could count on you".

After a minute or so of silence Luz ask "what's going on?"

Eda chuckles "it's Beating Heart day"

Luz gave Eda a puzzled look.

"It's a day where past lovers seek to win the hearts of those they haven't gotten over by cutting it out of them." Eda said in a way that made the seriousness of her comment impossible to determine by Luz.

Luz gave a mildly disgusted face. Eda, seeing this responded "it's not as bad as it seems besides where are you taking us?"

Just as the staff rounded a forest and went high up in the sky Luz guided it to a tower and as she got off proudly presented the school by saying "School!"

Eda rolled her eyes and got off the staff. "I hate it here, though i've never seen it from this view"

Luz kicked down three times and a magical trapdoor appeared and while climbing down she yelled triumphantly "nobody will look for you at school that's for sure"

Eda shrugged, she had to agree with that.

In the tower Luz and Eda were greeted enthusiastically by Willow and Gus. After explaining the situation and catching up with each other, Luz asks what Willow and Gus were planning on doing. After some impressively discreet blushing, Willow explains that her and lucas were planning on watching the beating heart ceremony that the school was going to put on. Luz being able to take a hint for once about how her intrusion might be unwelcome stood up and tried to dismiss herself and eda when eda cut her off.

"A bunch of school kids participating in a-! Oh that sounds entertaining" Eda Chuckled, Luz you don't want to miss this.

The two students shared an awkward and embarrassed look, Luz knew she was lacking vital information but Eda was absolutely bubbling with excitement. Glad she had prepared Luz reached into her pockets and pulled out her pad of spells, she flipped for a while until she found what she wanted. Two disguising spells, she tapped her pen to her runes and the spells were cast. Eda took notice.

"Good thinking Luz! Now it's time!" she cackled "Lead the way kiddos!"

As they headed down the tower Luz whispered to her friends "what's going on?" while the gang made their way to the school's coliseum Willow did most of the talking. She explained that the Beating Heart Ceremony was a yearly celebration of the pursuit of love. She explained how the event had changed since its inception and now it was mostly a friendly magic tournament. It's mostly for older students but anyone can join technically. Willow hastily added that she and gus just wanted to watch and neither planned on participating. Luz followed and groaned internally about Eda's apparent obliviousness to Willow's and Gus' romantic intentions. After arriving at the coliseum and purchasing tickets they made their way to the seats. Their seats were in the middle of the coliseum which means the action could be perceived with minimum eye strain. In an attempt to give Willow and guys some space she told eda she wanted to explore the different table set up around. Eda, knowing exactly Willow and Gus' romantic intentions and wanting in part to view the cuteness that would ensue dismissed her. Eda made some comment about not wanting to miss the beginning of the action so Luz awkwardly slinked away to find something interesting to do.

Luz exited the seating area and wandered among the booths. She saw a booth selling diaries that would be accessible to only the owner and would give the diary entries of someone else if they tried to read it. Luz was fascinated but honestly her phone could do the same thing. She had had that thought recently that a lot of magic was just doing in a more dramatic way stuff her phone could already do. For example her own first spell which she had learned months ago but it felt like a lifetime was just a simple light spell.

Just then Luz's disguising spell wore off, she made a self conscious look around. Nobody noticed, Luz put on a big smile and continued to explore. That's one thing about the boiling isles, you could really just wear a catsuit every day of your life and nobody would give you a second glance. Well, nobody but the authorities and the school officials that is. Back in her own skin Luz strolled around with a giant grin on her face. _This was the life_. Luz saw some magical books, potions, wands and so many fascinating things she was blown away. Even after months living here she couldn't help but approach things with a fresh and unbelievable perspective.

Finally she saw an unglamorous booth with a bunch of arguing teen girls her own age. As she approached she began to make out some familiar faces.

"Amity!" she shouted as she ran up to the table. As Amity turned and saw who called her name her heart sank. Her friends were going to have a field day making fun of Luz. For good reason she thought but she wasn't going to act as cruel as possible to a girl who obviously needed mental help. "Luz what are you doing here? You know you're not allowed to be at this school" amity chastised.

"Oh amity you know i don't go through the trouble of knowing the rules" Luz retorted.

Amity sighed, giving a glance to her sniggering friend. "Look Luz you know we're not friends right? I can't have any distractions right now I'm have to focus for the tournament" Amity patiently explained to Luz as if she were a dumb child.

Luz perked was saddened by the beginning of amity's words but perked up at the end. "You're competing?" Luz knew amity like talking about herself and Luz was interested in what it took to truly be a great witch.

Amity swelled a bit with pride. "Yes i'm going to be one of the few first years at the academy to ever make it into the final rounds. So as you could see I'm very busy"

Luz was familiar with her and amity's dynamic and decided to lean into the competitive side of their friendship. "I bet I could do that too!" Luz said enthusiastically.

Amity scoffed. "I'd like to see you try, Human" she added the last bit in a scathing voice to appeal to her friends who were no doubt scrutinizing every aspect of that interaction.

"Good idea Amity! Where do I sign up?" Luz bubbled and expected the sign-ups to be closed but was getting excited at the idea of showing off all that she'd learned. Deciding to take a small jab at her friend Luz said "just make sure when we face off you don't cheat this time".

At this Amity blushed and bristled, angrily embarrassed. "Actually this is the sign-up table to compete" amity said. "And don't forget you cheated in that duel too".

Luz approached the table with a cheerful wink toward amity. "I know" she said oozing confidence and competence that would've felt alien to her before spending time on the boiling isles.

Amity was more than annoyed at this. " I hope you get matched against an ugly brute" she whispered in Luz's ear as she passed. Luz not knowing the specific rules of the tournament missed the implication.

After signing up and idly trying to start a conversation with amity's friends and failing after they just laughed at her and stared at her like an animal she gave up. Passing amity again she said in a smug way "I hope you get matched with the loveliest person in the tournament.

Amity rejoined her friends as Luz walked away, she complained to her friends about how cringe Luz was, how dumb she was and how much she's going to lose by in the first round.

Luz walked back to rejoin her friends. After telling her of what happened Willow and Gus looked terrified while eda looked delighted. She was under the impression that Luz was going to give payback to amity.

Just then an announcer came on the magical sound amplification system.

"ARE YOU ALL READY FOR THE BREAKING HEART DAY CEREMONY" the announcer paused for applause. "PLEASE FIND YOUR SEATS AS I ANNOUNCE THE ROUND ONE PAIRINGS ALL COMPETITORS PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE SIGN IN BOOTH WHEN I ANNOUNCE YOUR NAME" after running through many names that Luz had never heard of she finally heard her own, paired with amity. Willow and Gus looked terrified and Luz got up and put on a brave face. After all, she had wanted to join the tournament to prove a point to amity so it makes karmic sense that they get paired together.

As she walks away Willow calls after her "good luck" and Luz flashes her a smile. Luz flips through her notebook taking inventory of her spells. Then she produces her magic pen and begins to prepare slightly more aggressive spells. Thinking that earth moving spells might be effective against amity's monsters she preps those on her way to the booth.


	2. Chapter 2

FF AN: IT IS OWL HOUSE FRIDAY! I had a stressful week and got a late start on this chapter so it's pretty short (sorry) but next week will probably be the conclusion of this little story. Thank you to the guest that left a review and I agree, this ship is pretty popular and usually I'm a fan of shipping the less common ships (higgco for life) I just love this one in particular so much. This most recent episode especially had so much blushing, it was great. Please do leave a review as it is by far the greatest motivating factor for my writing. Enjoy!

Luz was a little confused and rattled not paying attention to the competition's first round. She tried to prep spells in her notebook but her hand was shaking and she couldn't concentrate to draw them properly. She was nervous, not only does she compete in the second round she competes against Amity, who's likely been preparing for the competition for months. She knew what she should be doing, either writing more spells or watching the first round to get a feel for the competition. But really what she was doing was fantasizing about winning. She knew she could never of course, but to see the face on Amity when she loses, to finally maybe earn some respect from her long time rival. Oh, it filled her heart with joy and hope. She was excited certainly but scared, Amity outclassed Luz in nearly every way. Amity had more experience, higher level skills and more confidence. Luz had a notebook, a pen and a few dozen prepared spells, after that she was done for.

Suddenly her head snapped to attention when her name came on the magical equivalent to a loudspeaker, the first round was over. There were five minutes left until the competition. Luz got up, steeled her nerves and hyped herself up. '_I've got this' _she told herself. '_Amity is too confident surely I could use that to my advantage'. _While she couldn't think of a specific way to use Amity's confidence against her she nonetheless labored under the delusion that this was a glaring weakness of Amity's. On her way to the stage floor she did develop an opening tactic. She's going to cast a couple of light balls (her specialty) to freak Amity out, while she's distracted she'll attempt to blind her with another more powerful light spell. Then while she's disoriented Luz was going to use one of her recent earth spells to quickly knock Amity down. Luz's best chance to win was a quick fight so she didn't run out of spells. Luz was playing to win. Before entering the arena she had convinced herself she had a good chance of putting on a show, even winning. She stepped into the arena her head held high and her gaze steeled on Amity.

Luz barely even heard the thunderous applause that had erupted when Amity entered the arena moments before she did. In fact apart from a wave toward Eda, willow, King, and Gus she didn't interact with the audience at all. Luz put on a smile, and wished Amity good luck. Amity however was busy soaking up the audience's lauds to notice. Luz was somewhat irked by this.

"INHABITANTS OF THE BOILING ISLES ROUND TWO BEGINS IN 3" the booming voice from before announces. Amity focuses her attention on Luz. '_finally '_ Luz thought. Amity's mouth changed gradually into a smile and Luz's Heart fluttered. From nerves or something else she couldn't say.

"**2" **the announcer's voice rang out. Amity lowered herself and angled herself slightly to reduce her profile. '_Smart' _thought Luz and though it countered her plan she decided to lurch left and enact it anyways. Luz mirrored Amity's stance. Luz's eyes glanced once at Amity's abomination pot, Luz was mostly untrained in that area of magic so she couldn't make heads or tails of what that could mean.

"**1" **immediately Luz lurched left per her plan but as she was throwing out her light ball spells Amity jumped lifting the cap off of her abomination pot, smiled, then closed her eyes and spoke. "Abomination: Merge". She commanded. Luz, not quite realizing that Amity had closed her eyes in anticipation cast her blinding spell anyways, which while not catching her opponent did temporarily stun a large section of the audience and the announcer. Amity's abomination rose and a person shaped hole appeared in the back of it directly in front of Amity's jumping trajectory. After landing inside the abomination, the hole closed and the Amity abomination combination walked forward. It looked like this _was_ going to be a quick fight.

Luz was scared, but kept her head on. She had planned on a more casting based match but it made sense that Amity would stick to her strengths. Luz's next plan had involved disrupting the casting of spells using some earth magic to disrupt the hand motions of her opponent, a trick she had learned sparring with Eda. but if Amity wasn't going to be casting this wasn't effective and didn't counter the abomination currently heading toward her. An idea popped into her head and she whipped out a fresh page in her notepad. She scrambled together a rune which she had learned from taping Willow, one that would summon a large wall of shrubs to slow an enemy. She sketched the necessary rune, a complicated one using hexagons primarily expertly and casted competently. A short hedge the height of Luz' knees grew before the abomination. Luz let out a sigh, not as impressive as when WIllow does it but hey it was something. The ami-nation however didn't really even notice, the flesh of the abomination molding around the shrubbery. Amity wasn't even slowed down. Time was running out and Luz couldn't really think of anything else to do. She figured she could play the cat and mouse game until she devised some plan. '_If only I had learned more spells' _Luz thought, light and earth magic don't do much against abominations at all.

Running around the small stage was exhausting and Luz was beginning to run out of breath. Apart from a few simple terrain elevation spells Luz had used nothing else since her strategy switched to evasion. Amity however, grew impatient. Taking off her abominations arm a new smaller abomination joined Amity's in the cat and mouse game. Only Luz could hear her muffled voice "abomination pursue".

Now with two abominations in this magical pac-man reenactment Luz couldn't keep up. She knew her time in the arena was limited now. She at least wanted to make a good showing but really she hadn't even done that. Very few people outside of Amity and the front row even noticed her terrain shifts which had her opponent had to run around like Luz had been doing all game would likely have worn them out. Instead she had worn herself out, embarrassed herself for Amity and burned up a ton of prepared spells from her notebook.

Knowing the round would be over soon and wanting a good show for her audience, Amity began to prepare her finishing move, something she had envisioned implementing in a final round but not having the patience to wait she began to move her arms around. Her abomination moved with her, around her. A golden circle appeared where her abominations stub moved through the air. "Abomination: cast" came Amity's muffled voice through her abomination.

Luz was amazed and terrified, or at least she was until getting hit with a cannon of purple abomination flesh that sent her flying and had her seeing stars. Willow and Eda immediately rose to their feet along with the rest of the audience. But while the crowds were jeering, Luz's friends attempted to rush to her side. Amity separated herself from her abomination gracefully and stood upon its pot as she bowed before the crowd. Eating their admiration and enjoying her victory.

Luz sat up groggily, her head was ringing. In a daze she looked for a familiar face, Amity's was closest. Luz tried to focus and ground herself on that point. Amity's face, glowing happy. Despite of herself Luz smiled she may have gotten beat but even she had to admit that was pretty cool. Luz promptly passed out concussed.


	3. culmination

Luz came to consciousness unable to move much but whether that was due to injuries sustained or just the comfort of her bed remained to be seen. Hypothetically she should've been healed by the tournament's healers but perhaps they haven't gotten to her yet. Luz's eyes fluttered open, deciding to see what was going on. She was in an unfamiliar room, pretty dirty for a hospital or medical treatment room on earth but it might've been the cleanest room she'd stayed at on the Boiling isles so far. Not yet risking moving her head she scanned the room.

"Friends!" Luz yelled loopily as her eyes focused on three figures.

A familiar exasperated sigh rung out from the owl lady's lungs but it carried a distinct tone of relief. "The medics here said they wouldn't treat a human so I had to heal you myself kiddo" she said explanatorily. Creaking her joints Eda looked satisfied on the conscious luz, "it's been a while since I looked into it but i'm pretty sure I made the necessary adjustments for the human biology."

Luz shuddered, that wasn't exactly re-assuring. Eda may be the greatest witch ever but her understanding of human culture did not inspire shook doubts of her temporary adoptive mother figure for the moment. Then smiled weakly and put on a confidently optimistic face, she may have ruined her friends' Beating heart day but it would only be worse if they spent more of it worrying about her. "Hey guys" she said weakly. "How was I out there?" she ventured.

Gus visibily cringed and opened his mouth. Milliseconds before he could begin speaking willow slugged him in the shoulder and all that escaped his mouth was an "oof". In a nurturing tone WIllow began genuinely encouraging her human friends magical endeavors. Gus was well meaning but Willow didn't think his approach to criticism was particularly effective with Luz.

"I loved the shrubs" WIllow began gushing "it was such a nice touch! When did you learn that?"

Luz feigned modesty and brushed it off, "it was nothing, I just watched some of your casting - it was just an imitation nothing compared to what you cast"

Willow wasn't buying it, she knew the countless hours her friend had spent studying nature to learn it's magical runes. WIllow knew just beneath the surface Luz was dying to gush and boast about the fight. In fact she was quite surprised she hadn't begun boasting already. WIllow's cheeks did tinge the slightest at the compliment. Quickly deciding to try and move the conversation to slightly more comfortable ground she approached Luz and asked "how are you feeling".

Luz responded without moving, "fine" she said dismissively but Willow knew better she'd read a book on human sickness during one of her visits to the owl house. Willow placed her hand on Luz's forehead and exclaimed "A fever! you should get some rest and some water" She wasn't actually sure if this was a good treatment for getting "treated" by Eda but she figured taking it easy couldn't hurt the fragile human.

Luz nodded softly and murmured something about that being a good idea. As Luz went off to sleep WIllow led Eda and Gus out of the room, not many people would be keen to check up on the human not out of malice towards her though but mostly just callous disregard. Willow sighed she wished someone could look after her best friend but it was a more important mission to get the agent of chaos that was eda and the agent of harsh critical analysis that was Gus away from Luz. As they took their seats to watch the final matches of the day WIllow sent out a silent prayer that whatever powers at be would watch over Luz.

A presence awoke Luz, wariy of ill intent Luz pretended to be asleep still so she could gauge the threat if it existed. After what seemed like ages Luz heard a small catch in someone's breath she lept into action- or at least she intended to. What she wanted to do was spring from her sickbed and throw down some spells and show her presumed assilent who they were messing with. What instead happened is she sat up in bed and pointed at where the noise had come from. _Darn _thought Luz, as a monotone "ow" escaped her mouth. _guess my body's not super healed yet._

A small "eep" escaped from the darkness and Luz scrambled in her pack to find her notebook. "Hello?" Luz spoke into the darkness as she pulled out a light spell. As she cast the spell and a ball of light erupted from the paper and illuminated a familiar face.

"Amity!" The name enthusiastically escaped Luz's lips really before she had a chance to think about it.

"Shhhhhh" came the hushed voice of Luz's former opponent, though it wasn't likely anyone was around to care.

"I came to check on you" Amity said in an uncharacteristically soft and bashful voice. Luz opened her mouth to quip back but Amity glared at her and put up a finger. "And-" Amity paused dramatically debating on whether or not she was overstepping boundaries. Deciding to throw caution to the wind she continued slightly more confidently, the traces of shame gone. "To thank you" she finished.

Luz propped herself up and curiously Looked at Amity, the dim light made her features hard to read but Amity looked as serious as she did on the battlefield. "Thank me?" Luz ventured tentatively, genuinely confused.

Amity knew what she wanted to do but her instinctual sass kicked in. she flipped her hair and indignantly responded "don't expect me to repeat it". As she was about to heel turn out of the room she stopped herself and shook her head. "Wait-" she began.

But Luz was grinning.

"I suppose I should thank you too" Luz said. It was Amity's turn to be confused. A slightly cocked eyebrow was all she did to show it, to the untrained eye it was an imperceptible change of expression. But Luz had spent a lot of time studying her friend's face. "For such a fun fight!"

Amity's expression remained seriously puzzled "but…. You lost?" she said, her tone of voice clearly conveying an undertone of concern.

"Yeah but it was close!" Luz said cheerfully.

"It was not." Amity said in a deadpan voice.

Amity was right of course but Luz wasn't gonna let her off easy. "Yeah it was" Luz said innocently.

Amity held her head in a hand, almost regretting coming to see that nitwit. She shook her head looking at the floor. "Look that's not what I came here for" Amity said knowing she couldn't win this childish argument.

Luz sighed she didn't really want to talk about the fight, not with Amity at least. Playing confident and boasting to her other friends was different. But Amity was there, and she won. Thinking back to the fight Luzwas filled with wistfulness. "They loved you" she said quietly, almost without meaning to.

Amity was taken aback, being unable to direct the conversation in the way she wanted was a deeply unfamiliar experience. Luz meanwhile had accidentally stumbled into familiar conversational territory; gassing up her friends. "You were great!" she insisted she got up, forgetting her condition she energetically began to act out the fight. "You were all like-" Luz began to do a zombie walk and raised her hands "BWAAHHHHH and I was all like " Luz got close to the floor and re-enacted a dodge "WOOSH THWAP" Amity was laughing behind her hand. Luz beamed. "How'd you think of that anyways? You must be the first witch to ever ride their abomination like a mech"

Amity was caught off guard. Strategy. This is what she had come in to talk about but somehow she found herself speechless. Amity cleared her throat she needed to collect her thoughts. She rehearsed for the twentieth time the line she'd written beforehand. She opened her mouth and the color drained from luz's face. Before she got a word out Amity realized what was going to happen and leaped out to catch Luzas she fell. Amity was cursing herself, how could she let Luzget out of bed in her condition? She saw firsthand how hard of a hit she took. _I should apologize _Amity thought. _Yes, apologize _she made up her mind, but when she looked down on the hopefully conscious Luzher mind went blank. Something about the stress of the collapse, the tension during the fight and the unpreparedness of the situation Amity couldn't cope. Her brain short-circuited. _Say something_. _Anything._ "I'm not" Amity said.

Luz smiled, confused. Amity was warm, warmer than her bed even and that's just what she wanted. Luz wrapped an arm around Amity for closeness. "Not what?" she said, dazed and confused but strangely elated.

"The first witch ever to hide in an abomination" Amity replied automatically mentally kicking herself for picking the most irrelevant thing to say when luz's health could be in danger. Amity was keenly aware of how tight Luzwas gripping her, and she should've been more worried about luz's health but… Amity blinked. She'd never seen such a beautiful shade of brown. Amity remembered something about souls and windows, an old human saying from one of her books probably. Amity shook her head and tried to help Luz to her bed.

"Oh" Luzresponded. She had forgotten that's what they were talking about. "Well then who was?" she asked as she eased into the bed. Missing the warmth of her friend as she stood up and looked down at Luz.

Amity shrugged, "as far as I know you were"

Luz was even more confused, her head was pounding. "I was?"

Amity nodded "that first day you went to school with willow." she explained.

Luz responded. "Ah-that's why"

"Thanks" Amity said sternly. Turned on her heel and walked to the door her heart pounding.

"Amity?" Luz asked timidly.

"Yes?" Amity responded

"Can you tuck me in?" Luz asked innocently.

Amity rolled her eyes and sighed. She couldn't resist. "Of course" she responded and walked back to the bed. She looked at her friend and into her large brown puppy-dog-eyes.

"Thank you" Luz said sweetly.

Amity began to tuck in her friend. Briefly struck by how odd this was Amity wished she could just lie there with her friend instead of prepare for the finals tomorrow. Amity steeled her nerves, she decided it was time to live a little."Hey Luz?" she asked softly

"Yeah?" Luz responded.

"I don't think you're gonna make the finals tomorrow" Amity began nervously. "And well honestly i'm a bit nervous" as she continued her face reddened but she was in too deep to give up now. "And well I was hoping that I might have a good luck kiss?"

A moment passed, and Amity panicked 'it's sort of a tradition here' she almost lied to justify herself to Luz who was smirking.

"I'd thought you'd never ask" Came her reply


End file.
